Nothing would make me happier than to learn you are assembling a book of your thoughts and impressions, ready for publication.
You have the mind of an artist and the soul of a deeply connected and honest human - encased in a comforting cocoon of clear thinking. You are a treasure to those of us who yearn for truthfulness and moral conviction.
Thank you for those kind and encouraging words, arthurdecco. I wish I could express adequately how much your and others' support means. And, I can't deny I've long toyed with the idea of writing a book. Your comment found its mark.
It happened many years ago, but I can still see his face when he looked at the ring and then when he was trying to hide his shame behind his father's coat, and, yes, the change was profound and dark.
This is true, Craig: "Jews have made Jews their god. They are Jehovah. The Chosen People chose themselves." How do you know this? You lifted my spirits this evening.
They are the destroyers. Creation is for the gentiles. Destruction is jew business. Hermetic principle of dualism. We should thank them for their services.
I just got back from my 5 mile walk…Nature, the great equalizer.
I loved your essay…it made me cry. What a precious child, and what an IGNORE-ant father. I doubt the little boy’s mother would approve.
I used to take my allowance and buy my mother one of those fake “beautiful” necklaces in the blue velvet boxes. Drugstores sold them. When you’re a child, it’s such a gift of caring and love.
When I was 9 I bought my mother a coconut for Christmas purchased on Broadway and 190th street in Manhattan. Difficult to wrap, but she opened it with a decent simulation of joy and surprise.
However, it was not the O Henry moment you imagine. Fiction is better than real life.
As for a God, isn't Jesus (minus the Jewish crap) the God/ man who walked the earth? I prefer Jesus to any made up modern. And maybe Jefferson was on to something rewriting the Gospels to include only His teachings..
Yes, I think Jeffers is referring to Jesus (he was a minister's son) but the trap (I think) is that we turned man into God. Or God into man. In other words, why was it necessary to make Jesus the man into God if he was preaching religious truth?
There have been five mass extinctions in Earth's history. After each one the next level of life was more advanced. Creation is still in progress, and it is GOOD. Knowing the Creator, the Grand Architect, God, the Force, without the old testament.
I enjoyed this. However, having struggled through unemployment and homelessness, and lost my marriage owing to financial ruin, and been powerless to protect my daughter from the whims of her mother, and left without vital surgeries that meant minor problems escalated into permanent medical conditions, I have completely reversed my youthful beliefs in the unimportance of money--and it is money you need, not just 'enough' to get by but fuck-you levels of wealth, to help hose down the shit that can so suddenly and traumatically shower itself over your once promising life, and to ensure that your children, and even grandchildren, do not have to break their bodies and brains scrounging about in the grime. I come from wealth (in historical terms, quite obscene levels), and in just a couple of generations, via that most free-spirited and present-oriented boomer caste, this safety net of investments and properties has been frittered away until I was left grasping bare air as the rope-ladder was hauled up then burned for its warmth. Make money, invest it wisely, and pass something significant down to your progeny.
Your tribulations were due to the debt / usury financial system, taxation theft, the medical / industrial complex, big agriculture, big pharma, etc etc. In the current system money is very important - you are right about that - as a means of exchange only. TPTB use it as a means to exert power and control though, unfortunately.
Money is useful. And like any useful tool ought to be respected. But, also like every other tool, its utility is limited. Because money is so useful for so many things we tend to forget that it's not useful for everything. Death comes for us all. There is no changing this. Money will not change this. All it can do is mitigate some events that can be mitigated. But people see money's broad usefulness and come to believe it's all that matters. And, as the story goes, those people not only fuck up their own lives, they fuck up the lives of those who depend upon them.
A child isn't a dilemma. I child has the same claim to centrality that you do. We might just as easily say you are the child's dilemma and we need to find a solution for you.
You actually make my point for me about self-deification. When each of us is our own god, then, yes, why not see the rest of the world's humans as actors in our play? I think the rabbis preach exactly that on a group level.
In the real world, of course, no one is an actor in anyone else's play. So, the self-deities are acting according to the world as it is not--i.e., irrationally.
Focus on the perpetual dilemma and the delight fades (unless perpetual dilemma delights you). They're inversely proportional. No pollyanna here, but I try; la, la, la..
The problem I see with your position, which is (correct me if I'm wrong) humans should not reproduce as an ethical matter, is that the very people who would philosophically adopt such a position are the same people who are concerned about the environment, who form campaigns against factory farming, and so on. In other words, in order to eliminate the harmful impact of humans on the world, you advocate eliminating the only humans who give a shit.
Worse, you are lowering the likelihood humans will ever progress to a more harmonious relationship with the rest of the planet because you are lowering the overall IQ of humanity. If acting in harmony with nature is the smart thing to do, you aren't going to achieve that by making people less smart. (I doubt very seriously an 80-IQ person has ever made the decision to be "child-free" as his ethical duty to the world.)
I'd like to see a study of people in their 80s who made the deciision in their twenties to continue living like they are in their 20s until they die. I'd bet money there are severe regrets.
A great modern-day Christmas story, Craig. I felt deeply for the little kid; I had such experiences in the sense of being all happy that you thought you'd done something well and then be totally misunderstood or punished instead, the shock of which leaves a child w/ an existential confusion and fear of acting, instead of confidence, because it may be deemed wrong by authorities, teachers, parents, even God. It takes work and self-inquiry for years to turn that into a positive. I hope that kid could do that.
I don't think we created gods any more than we created thunder. Our religious understanding is very primitive and so we've created some wildly varied explanations for the divine just as we came up with all sorts of wild explanations for thunder.
The thing about the Platonic ideal is that thoughts aren't actually real. They are only quasi real. You can demonstrate this to yourself by trying to think of one. The minute you think of the thought you are having right now, the thought is gone. Thoughts only become real when actuated in the world through action.
DesCartes fucked up when he whittled everything down to "I think, therefore I am." he should have said, "I act, therefore I am." Or, better, "I will, therefore I am." Had he landed there, the world would likely be a very different (better) place.
Nope but you are headed in the right direction. But farther out. And much smaller.
But it's interesting you mention Willowbrook, because that was the location of the second child/horror incident story that I have. This girl from France and I were conducting a taste test for a new soft drink and we had a table set up in the mall. The table was covered with rows of little white paper cups with green liquid in them. Shoppers could taste the sample then fill out a short survey of their impressions.
So we're sitting there and a mother walks up with her two kids--a boy, about the same age as the kid that bought the ring, and a girl about a year younger. The mother sits down to take the test and she apparently thought she was on a hidden camera and we were making a commercial because she was really hamming it up--sniffing the bouquet, holding it up to the light (these were paper cups), and so on. So while she was going through her antics, taking tiny little sips and smacking her lips and staring thoughtfully at the ceiling, we noticed her kids, one on each side of her, looking at the rows of white cups with the bright green liquid inside at eye-level right in front of them.
Without thinking, I slid a cup across to the little boy and Cathy slid one to the little girl. Here, would you like to try one?
The boy picked up the cup but before he could get it to his lips, his mother, without a word--without even looking at him, backhanded him right across the face, sending the cup and its contents flying.
The kid couldn't have been more innocent of any wrongdoing. So I saw the same shock and confusion as the boy who bought the ring, which turned into the the same embarrassment at being punished in front of strangers, but, unlike the other kid, I saw a brief glimpse of hatred and rage, too.
Thank you, Jim, for catching that. The whole poem is worthwhile. I actually put the whole thing up in stone in Blagden Alley, Washington, DC, two blocks above the famous K St--"Where the World Shops for Senators."
"God 2.0"
Interesting title.
This is "Oydsseus Unsheathed 2.0"
Amazing development, Craig. Bravo!!
Nothing would make me happier than to learn you are assembling a book of your thoughts and impressions, ready for publication.
You have the mind of an artist and the soul of a deeply connected and honest human - encased in a comforting cocoon of clear thinking. You are a treasure to those of us who yearn for truthfulness and moral conviction.
Thank you.
I wish I could give this comment two hearts!
Thank you for those kind and encouraging words, arthurdecco. I wish I could express adequately how much your and others' support means. And, I can't deny I've long toyed with the idea of writing a book. Your comment found its mark.
Thanks Craig. That story of the little boy conveyed something very profound
It happened many years ago, but I can still see his face when he looked at the ring and then when he was trying to hide his shame behind his father's coat, and, yes, the change was profound and dark.
This is true, Craig: "Jews have made Jews their god. They are Jehovah. The Chosen People chose themselves." How do you know this? You lifted my spirits this evening.
And you made me smile.
The question is...chosen for what exactly?
It's a power strategy, for domination and very soon here - world control.
They are the destroyers. Creation is for the gentiles. Destruction is jew business. Hermetic principle of dualism. We should thank them for their services.
I just got back from my 5 mile walk…Nature, the great equalizer.
I loved your essay…it made me cry. What a precious child, and what an IGNORE-ant father. I doubt the little boy’s mother would approve.
I used to take my allowance and buy my mother one of those fake “beautiful” necklaces in the blue velvet boxes. Drugstores sold them. When you’re a child, it’s such a gift of caring and love.
I hope that child “survived”. 🕊️💜
Thank you!
This is a terrible, sad story well told.
When I was 9 I bought my mother a coconut for Christmas purchased on Broadway and 190th street in Manhattan. Difficult to wrap, but she opened it with a decent simulation of joy and surprise.
However, it was not the O Henry moment you imagine. Fiction is better than real life.
As for a God, isn't Jesus (minus the Jewish crap) the God/ man who walked the earth? I prefer Jesus to any made up modern. And maybe Jefferson was on to something rewriting the Gospels to include only His teachings..
Yes, I think Jeffers is referring to Jesus (he was a minister's son) but the trap (I think) is that we turned man into God. Or God into man. In other words, why was it necessary to make Jesus the man into God if he was preaching religious truth?
There have been five mass extinctions in Earth's history. After each one the next level of life was more advanced. Creation is still in progress, and it is GOOD. Knowing the Creator, the Grand Architect, God, the Force, without the old testament.
The story of the little boy made me cry. As always, well written, so very insightful and exactly what is needed at this time of year.
I enjoyed this. However, having struggled through unemployment and homelessness, and lost my marriage owing to financial ruin, and been powerless to protect my daughter from the whims of her mother, and left without vital surgeries that meant minor problems escalated into permanent medical conditions, I have completely reversed my youthful beliefs in the unimportance of money--and it is money you need, not just 'enough' to get by but fuck-you levels of wealth, to help hose down the shit that can so suddenly and traumatically shower itself over your once promising life, and to ensure that your children, and even grandchildren, do not have to break their bodies and brains scrounging about in the grime. I come from wealth (in historical terms, quite obscene levels), and in just a couple of generations, via that most free-spirited and present-oriented boomer caste, this safety net of investments and properties has been frittered away until I was left grasping bare air as the rope-ladder was hauled up then burned for its warmth. Make money, invest it wisely, and pass something significant down to your progeny.
Your tribulations were due to the debt / usury financial system, taxation theft, the medical / industrial complex, big agriculture, big pharma, etc etc. In the current system money is very important - you are right about that - as a means of exchange only. TPTB use it as a means to exert power and control though, unfortunately.
Money is useful. And like any useful tool ought to be respected. But, also like every other tool, its utility is limited. Because money is so useful for so many things we tend to forget that it's not useful for everything. Death comes for us all. There is no changing this. Money will not change this. All it can do is mitigate some events that can be mitigated. But people see money's broad usefulness and come to believe it's all that matters. And, as the story goes, those people not only fuck up their own lives, they fuck up the lives of those who depend upon them.
You know, you could just not create those children. Why create a dilemma that needs to be solved when you needn't have created it in the first place?
A child isn't a dilemma. I child has the same claim to centrality that you do. We might just as easily say you are the child's dilemma and we need to find a solution for you.
You actually make my point for me about self-deification. When each of us is our own god, then, yes, why not see the rest of the world's humans as actors in our play? I think the rabbis preach exactly that on a group level.
In the real world, of course, no one is an actor in anyone else's play. So, the self-deities are acting according to the world as it is not--i.e., irrationally.
Existence is a dilemma.
Of course it is, but it's also a delight.
Focus on the perpetual dilemma and the delight fades (unless perpetual dilemma delights you). They're inversely proportional. No pollyanna here, but I try; la, la, la..
Suffering demands more attention, due to the various asymmetries described.
To be or not to be is your dilemma?
Read my essay, and maybe you will understand. It might distress you, though.
The problem I see with your position, which is (correct me if I'm wrong) humans should not reproduce as an ethical matter, is that the very people who would philosophically adopt such a position are the same people who are concerned about the environment, who form campaigns against factory farming, and so on. In other words, in order to eliminate the harmful impact of humans on the world, you advocate eliminating the only humans who give a shit.
Worse, you are lowering the likelihood humans will ever progress to a more harmonious relationship with the rest of the planet because you are lowering the overall IQ of humanity. If acting in harmony with nature is the smart thing to do, you aren't going to achieve that by making people less smart. (I doubt very seriously an 80-IQ person has ever made the decision to be "child-free" as his ethical duty to the world.)
I'd like to see a study of people in their 80s who made the deciision in their twenties to continue living like they are in their 20s until they die. I'd bet money there are severe regrets.
Having children is good and so is making money
To paraphrase the philosopher, Robin Williams, yes, money is important and we need it to live, but it's not WHY we live.
I disagree. See my essay An Indictment of Life.
Autisticus, Professor David Benatar sounds like him came out of the same gene pool as Yuval Noah Harari. No surprise there.
In this case, his ethnicity is irrelevant to the issue at hand. The philosophy is sound.
Disagree. His ethnicity is fundamental to his worldview
Autisticus. Do you mean don't have any White children ?
I don't think anyone should have children, period.
A great modern-day Christmas story, Craig. I felt deeply for the little kid; I had such experiences in the sense of being all happy that you thought you'd done something well and then be totally misunderstood or punished instead, the shock of which leaves a child w/ an existential confusion and fear of acting, instead of confidence, because it may be deemed wrong by authorities, teachers, parents, even God. It takes work and self-inquiry for years to turn that into a positive. I hope that kid could do that.
I've a Thought!
"... A god must be accessible through the human condition—i.e., real—but must not be humans themselves."
Uman animals created "gods" via Thought. It's accessible and at the same time not a uman himself!
If we want to we can get rid of "gods" with another single Thought...
I don't think we created gods any more than we created thunder. Our religious understanding is very primitive and so we've created some wildly varied explanations for the divine just as we came up with all sorts of wild explanations for thunder.
Our Thought will invent anything... "dog", "divine", "thunder", all the rest of the dictionary... and all religions.
All are an invention of Thought.
It's the easy/secure way to explain what our Thought can't deal with.
Ah..a true Platonist.
The thing about the Platonic ideal is that thoughts aren't actually real. They are only quasi real. You can demonstrate this to yourself by trying to think of one. The minute you think of the thought you are having right now, the thought is gone. Thoughts only become real when actuated in the world through action.
DesCartes fucked up when he whittled everything down to "I think, therefore I am." he should have said, "I act, therefore I am." Or, better, "I will, therefore I am." Had he landed there, the world would likely be a very different (better) place.
Since all of them where using Thought to reach those "conclusions" it is clear just another Thought trap...
Our Thought excels in protecting itself. Security above all... and no matter what.
If we let our Thought prevail, Compassion will never be.
My guess is that this occurred at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne, NJ.
Nope but you are headed in the right direction. But farther out. And much smaller.
But it's interesting you mention Willowbrook, because that was the location of the second child/horror incident story that I have. This girl from France and I were conducting a taste test for a new soft drink and we had a table set up in the mall. The table was covered with rows of little white paper cups with green liquid in them. Shoppers could taste the sample then fill out a short survey of their impressions.
So we're sitting there and a mother walks up with her two kids--a boy, about the same age as the kid that bought the ring, and a girl about a year younger. The mother sits down to take the test and she apparently thought she was on a hidden camera and we were making a commercial because she was really hamming it up--sniffing the bouquet, holding it up to the light (these were paper cups), and so on. So while she was going through her antics, taking tiny little sips and smacking her lips and staring thoughtfully at the ceiling, we noticed her kids, one on each side of her, looking at the rows of white cups with the bright green liquid inside at eye-level right in front of them.
Without thinking, I slid a cup across to the little boy and Cathy slid one to the little girl. Here, would you like to try one?
The boy picked up the cup but before he could get it to his lips, his mother, without a word--without even looking at him, backhanded him right across the face, sending the cup and its contents flying.
The kid couldn't have been more innocent of any wrongdoing. So I saw the same shock and confusion as the boy who bought the ring, which turned into the the same embarrassment at being punished in front of strangers, but, unlike the other kid, I saw a brief glimpse of hatred and rage, too.
Footnote to your second Jeffers quote:
Shine, Perishing Republic
While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening to empire
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass hardens,
I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.
Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and home to the mother.
You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly
A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.
But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening center; corruption
Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains.
And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.
There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught — they say — God, when he walked on earth
https://allpoetry.com/Shine,-Perishing-Republic
Thank you, Jim, for catching that. The whole poem is worthwhile. I actually put the whole thing up in stone in Blagden Alley, Washington, DC, two blocks above the famous K St--"Where the World Shops for Senators."